Friday, July 07, 2006

Ding-dong merrily

It?s like Dance Dance Revolution for bell ringers: a system that tells players when to shake their instruments.

In a handbell choir each member holds two bells which produce different notes when shaken. To play melodies and chords the choir must learn which bells to shake and when. This takes time and skill, limiting the number of tunes choirs can learn and deterring children from joining choirs.

Now three American inventors have developed an electronic system that they claim will help old-fashioned bell choirs stay in tune, and allow players to learn more melodies, more quickly.

Each time a note is played on an electric piano, the system converts it into a digital code describing its pitch and timing. This information is sent to a wristband worn by each player using radio or infra-red signals. Vibrating pads and flashing LEDs on their wristbands tell the players when to shake and when to stop.

The code can be easily recorded onto a memory chip or disc, allowing the choirmaster to leave the piano and join in with the bell ringing while the recording sends out coded instructions.

The same system could also be used to liven up church bell ringing, the developers claim. Hallelujah!

What an intriguing invention. I think it would be very useful in some situations, particularly for ringers with hearing loss. I wonder though - for everyone else, wouldn't it just enable 'slacker' ringers who just don't want to learn to read music?

The article also completely misunderstands that the primary technique for producing the tone is the strike, not a shake--which is a separate technique to produce a musical effect, emphasis, or energy--but not generally to produce a melody. Thus the focus of the invention on marking the duration of a note is helpful in *inverse* proportion to the rhythmic complexity of the handbell music--and no help at all in terms of dynamics, visual rhythm, or any of the other myriad qualities that make a handbell performance musical.

I also can imagine that any sense of ensemble would suffer greatly, as the ringers would be staring at their wrists rather than at the director! The time lag between the perception of a "flash" and the brain command to the muscle to "strike" would completely bog the tempo down. Reading music is the key, as the eyes and peripheral vision can prepare the brain to command the muscle in advance of the actual strike itself.

A nice idea, perhaps, but if it's only suitable for beginning choirs, it would actually tend to work against those ringers' ability ever to become adept or musical beyond an elementary level--disastrous for a director try to build a program.

The inventors do not understand that a bell has a static tone and overtones that do not go out of tune unless the bell has been damanged.

I concur with another comment that this is not usefull beyond a beginning level. A ringer will not further develop as a ringer if they are only responding to a signal to ring rather that reading the music, following the director and listening to how their bells fit in with the others.

As far as the terminology and lack of understanding of ringing principles, my guess would be that is more a lack of the author's than the inventors'. What I could get from the patent (weeding through the legalese) seemed to be a reasonably realistic attempt to match the capabilities of the equipment to the standard ringing method.

That being said, I share many of the above stated reservations. The lag time & differing response times would seem to be particularly worrisome. I also tend to think that beginning ringers don't need any more addictive crutches. I'm still trying to wean some of my ringers off highlighting every note they play(some color-coding per hand); I can't imagine trying to convince them to give up a personalized "ring now!" command, even if it didn't produce as musical a result.

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